Displaying photos is becoming a strenuous task. With services such as Photobox, you can print your photos cheaply, but who wants a stack of paper anymore? Alternatively, you could go the digital photo frame route, but the price of these devices is a bit silly, for what it is.

Unless… Well, the answer is in the head-line, really. Why not make your own?

Chances are that you could procure a few-years-old laptop for little or no money, depending on the people you hang out with (no, I don’t mean your brother’s criminal mate, I mean how geeky people are. Jeez, you guys always think the worst of me! Honestly!).

Popular Science magazine recently ran a story on how it can be done…

The hardware: a four-year-old IBM laptop donated by PopSci’s IT department. Ask around and you’ll probably find a similar castoff machine, but if not, there are hundreds of suitable notebooks on eBay for less than $200—just about anything running Windows 2000 or better will suffice. You’ll also want to add Wi-Fi, either through a USB adapter or a PCMCIA card, so your mom can set the frame anywhere. (If the folks don’t have Wi-Fi, you can pick up a wireless router for about $20 online). To fit the screen’s nonstandard dimensions, I ordered a custom-made frame from americanframe.com, which offers hundreds of styles and materials and lets you visualize the matte and frame together before you hit ‘buy.’

The full, deliciously verbose version of the article is available over on Popular Science, or a more DIY-friendly version with more photos can be found here

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